5 out of 5

On record: out of every Hellboy-related 5-issue series up to the point this was published, Lobster Johnson: The Burning Hand was the best.  It scores on every single front: book design, covers, letters, colors, visuals, story, characters, comedy, drama, and thrills. It is, truly, the full package, and no, this kind of stuff isn’t easy, but damn we got spoiled on it during Arcudi’s back half of his run on the Hellboy books.

Starting out with a bang of mixed comedy and horror – a couple is chased by what looks like a parading troupe of ghostly Native Americans, turning a corner to find a bloody mess of a man, scalped – artist Tonci Zonjic and Arcudi launch LoJo onto the scene through, but of course, a window, firing guns akimbo and spouting pulpy one-liners. Smash-cut to the aftermath, discovering that the ‘ghosts’ were painted up mob men, with reporter Cindy’s persistence getting her the attention of the baddies, and thus of Lobster and his crew as well.

From here on out its a mix of mystery and fantasy: we learn about mobster Arnie Wald’s plans to snatch up real estate, and his eventual turning to some surprising assistance in the form of a certain skull-headed, blackly flaming monster. The best part about this is that even if you have no clue who this character is, he’s downright menacing, and his unstoppableness again shows why LoJo is such a compelling pulp hero, never cracking a smile and facing down bullets, but certainly mortal, and knowing that sometimes he just needs to run. This effectiveness extends to the other characters, good and bad, who take up real space and weight in the story, even if only appearing for a few panels; the Mignolaverse books are often guilty of tossing a lot of victims to that week’s supernatural baddie, and that happens here as well, but in each case we’ve had a moment of dialogue or acting that gives us a sense of character, and makes their following demise something that just adds to the tension and threat.

Zonjic’s take on prohibition-era NY is immersive: settings and characters are clean but lived in, with a Cameron Stewart-esque sense of roundness and flatness, brought alive with smart framing and motion. Dave Stewart nails the colors right away, opting for flats with the lightest of blends, working with Tonci’s open style but giving it just the right amount of depth as well. And with cover artst Dave Johnson (and the book’s overall design) leaning into the dimestore pulp cover ethos, there’s literally not a page of comic-related work in The Burning Hand that isn’t fully dedicated to bringing the world of Lobster Johnson alive.